Sing some New Zealand Christmas carols this week including one that features pohutukawa, New Zealand's Christmas tree.
Pohutukawa flower. Photo: Image by Avenue, Creative Commons
SONG: LO, E’ER A ROSE IS BLOOMING
Artist: Philadelphia Brass
Words/Music: Anon/Anon harm Praetorius
Recording: CBS MK 7033
[Translation by Henry Baker]
Lo, how a rose e'er blooming,
From tender stem hath sprung.
Of Jesse’s lineage coming,
As men of old have sung;
It came, a flow'ret bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.
O Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispel with glorious splendour
The darkness everywhere;
True man, yet very God,
From Sin and death now save us,
And share our every load.
SONG: O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
Artist: Haydn and Handel Society, Harry Christophers (dir)
Words/Music: Brooks/Redner
Recording: Coro COR 16117
O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
For Christ is born of Mary
And gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love
O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God the King
And Peace to men on earth
How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.
O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel
SONG: ANGELS’ CAROL
Artist: Cambridge Singers, City of London Sinfonia, John Rutter (dir)
Words/Music: Rutter/Rutter
Recording: Collegium 880111
Lyrics not available
SONG: REJOICE, REJOICE AT CHRISTMAS TIME
Artist: World Library Publications Choir
Words/Music: Bill Wallace/David L Sanders
Recording: WLP
Rejoice, rejoice at Christmas time,
All flesh is sacred now.
Embrace the manger in your heart
Beyond the why and how.
For God resides within that space
Of love and cosmic awe,
The home of singing, dancing love
Beyond life's mystic door.
Rejoice, rejoice at Christmas time,
All flesh has sacredness;
All matter bears the sign of God,
Imparts God's holiness.
For God can never be confined
Beyond our time and space.
God's hand is touching everything;
Each life reflects God's face.
Rejoice, rejoice at Christmas time,
All flesh reflects God's grace.
The realm that atoms dance within
Is nature's ballet space.
When we are one with baby's breath
And tender love's caress,
We find a Christmas manger in
Our deepest mind's recess.
Rejoice, rejoice at Christmas time,
Make space for starry eyes,
Discern how Jesus looked at life
With wonder and surprise;
For deeper than our harshest pain,
Beyond our muddled mind,
The gift of love in child-like form
Is our most precious find.
SONG: POHUTUKAWA CAROL
Artist: Whanganui Schola Sacra, Mark Leicester (dir)
Words/Music: Forsman/Mews
Recording: Private CD 161
Lyrics not available
SONG: WHENCE IS THAT GOODLY FRAGRANCE
Artist: Graduate Choir, Terence Maskell (dir), Pene Pati (tenor solo) Philip Smith (organ)
Words/Music: Trad trans Ramsay/Trad arr Willcocks
Recording: Atoll ACD207
Whence is the goodly fragrance flowing,
Stealing our senses all away,
never the like did come a-blowing,
Shepherds, in flow'ry fields of May,
Whence is that goodly fragrance flowing,
Stealing our senses all away.
What is that light so brilliant, breaking
Here in the night across our eyes.
Never so bright, the day-star waking,
Started to climb the morning skies!
What is that light so brilliant, breaking,
Here in the night across our eyes.
Bethlehem! there in manger lying,
Find your Redeemer haste away,
Run ye with eager footsteps vieing!
Worship the Saviour born today.
Bethlehem! there in manger lying,
Find your Redeemer haste away.
SONG: CHILD OF CHRISTMAS STORY
Artist: Sings Harry
Words/Music: Murray/Madden
Recording: Atoll ACD207
Child of Christmas story,
stable straw and star,
small and sweet and gentle,
tell us who you are.
Child whose baby finger
round our own is curled,
come to melt our hearts,
and come to change the world.
Child of Jew and gentile,
child of white and black,
teach us how to love you,
teach us what we lack.
Child of Mary's courage,
birthed in human pain,
tell us what your name is,
be our hope again.
SONG: ONCE IN ROYAL DAVID’S CITY
Artist: Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
Words/Music: Alexander/Gauntlett
Recording: Argo 414042
Once in royal David’s city
stood a lowly cattle shed,
where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for his bed:
Mary was that mother mild;
Jesus Christ, her little child.
He came down to earth from heaven
who is God and Lord of all,
and his shelter was a stable,
and his cradle was a stall;
with the poor and meek and lowly,
lived on earth our Saviour holy.
And through all his wondrous childhood
He would honour and obey,
love, and watch the lowly Maiden,
in whose gentle arms he lay;
Christian children all must be
mild, obedient, good as he.
For he is our childhood’s pattern;
day by day like us he grew;
he was little, weak and helpless;
tears and smiles like us he knew;
and he feels for all our sadness,
and he shares in all our gladness.
And our eyes at last shall see him,
through his own redeeming love;
for that child so dear and gentle
is our Lord in heaven above;
and he leads his children on
to the place where he is gone.
Not in that poor lowly stable,
with the oxen standing by,
we shall see him; but in heaven,
set at God's right hand on high;
when like stars his children crowned
all in white shall wait around.
